The Death of Me
by Tobias
Summary: I originally posted this back in 2004. But now I went back, fixed a bunch of spelling and format errors to make it fit for repost. Summary  Max Payne looks down the barrel of a pistol and sees only the end of his journey. ONESHOT.


Max Payne:  
The Death of Me  
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Summary: Let's say that at some point in any of the Max Payne games he, well, dies.

This is what I'm thinking.  
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I had made it so far. I'd had seen so many people die. My wife and Baby, Annie Fin, Mona, and countless others. But once again, I was staring down the barrel of a gun, but not like the other times, there wasn't a way out.

The final member of the inner circle had found me.

Once again, time slowed down as I looked down that long dark path to hell. There would be no heaven for me. I lived my entire life in mere seconds. Dreams came flooding into my mind, like air fanning the flames of a fire. 

Or the flames of hell. They waited for me, calling, beckoning for me to join them. 'Death is coming. And hell follows with her.' Lipino's words came into my head. I lived each moment, the last seconds of my wife's life. The last seconds of Mona's. I lived it all again. 'You only live twice' isn't just a cliché for me anymore. It was coming true. I saw some of my life through the eyes of the cleaners. I would watch myself pull the trigger on me. Watched as time slowed down, allowing the real me to take pride in what I had done.

It was just another bottle of water. Spilling into the fire of my hate.

Only to make it grown bigger by breaking the thin line of fabric, allowing cool air to rush in.

I remembered the look in Mona's eyes as she died. How it stood there, frozen in time. How I felt when I thought it was all over. Logic lying to me all over again. And luck biting me in the ass as it has before. I remembered Annie as she pleaded for her life to be spared by the cleaners. How they pulled the trigger without a blink. How they killed old ladies and trapped dozens in a burning building, just so they could get paid a lousy thousand. No amount of money could ever come close to equaling any of the lives they took.

But again, Lady Luck was flirting with the man down the street. She wouldn't come to my house in time. She never had time for me anymore. Just like I had done to my wife. staying late at work to talk to a friend. While she stayed with the baby. The day they had been killed, I had stayed late at work. I would have been home to save them all. But, at that time, Lady Luck, fate, and the devil were having a three-some. The devil turning the other two twisted and wicked. Making them do things they didn't want to.

I didn't want to have to kill all those people. But they never left me any choice. Horn had sent those men to my house. Vinnie was collateral. Vlad was the main man. Mike was his lackey. Mona and the rest, were all in the way. Winterson was a trader. I shouldn't kid myself. Everyone that I have ever even gave the slightest damn about died in my arms.

I didn't have much time left. The man in front of me grows impatient and more and more willing to do the dirty deed then wait for his partner.

This was the end.

It was finally all over. All of it. No more, and of course, no less. I would die. No family to attend my funeral.

Just some officers, but… only because they had to.

I herd the bang. Yet, I felt no pain. Nothing. I fell to the ground.  
The crimson liquid burst from my stomach. This was it, the end.  
The end. Quite possibly my only friend. Another loud bang added less feeling to me then I already had. I lay on the ground.  
Waiting for it to all end. Another bang. But I was still alive. I looked up in time. Mona stood before me. 

For people out there who say you only live twice, you are all fools.  
I gave her a smile, before I died. In her arms. This time it would be different. No one died in my arms. I finally had the comfort.

I didn't know what I was going to do now. 

The only thing I did know:  
It was finally all over.


End file.
